First 20 Pages of The Struggle Within Avaiable on S&S.com

Perhaps publishers are trying to follow the restaurant model of pricing. At a restaurant, they generally break even on the food when you factor in food cost, labor cost, building cost. They make their profit at the Bar. Alcohol is VERY profitable.
Perhaps S and S are trying to make some profit on Ebooks. Just like alcoholic beverages at a restaurant, not everyone is going to buy an ebook, but those who do provide a nice built in profit to the owner/publisher.

One other problem with S&S is that they do not allow any discounts/sales on eBooks. You can get discounts/sales on pBooks from S&S. Bit eBooks, no way. If S&S is going to charge pBook prices for eBooks, then they should at the least allow discounts/sales.

One other problem with S&S is that they do not allow any discounts/sales on eBooks. You can get discounts/sales on pBooks from S&S. Bit eBooks, no way. If S&S is going to charge pBook prices for eBooks, then they should at the least allow discounts/sales.

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They can't do that because of the Agency pricing model...and before you launch into another one of your tiresome tirades on the subject about how evil it is, let me just point out that the Agency pricing system is actually giving authors a better deal than they've ever had before, with 70% of the eBook price (with the exception of tie-ins, I presume) going directly to them.

They can't do that because of the Agency pricing model...and before you launch into another one of your tiresome tirades on the subject about how evil it is, let me just point out that the Agency pricing system is actually giving authors a better deal than they've ever had before, with 70% of the eBook price (with the exception of tie-ins, I presume) going directly to them.

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70% goes to the publisher, or 40% more than they get on a print book of the same price. If anything, authors are going to see less (the list prices used to calculate royalties stayed the same or decreased under agency prices, while retail prices increased).

Michael Stackpole gave me a long lecture on how good the Agency model is for authors when it comes to eBooks.

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Was this an in-person lecture, or is it something online that you can link to? I've seen nothing on his site about how agency pricing is helpful for authors under the aegis of the Agency Six, only about how self-publishing authors can make a lot more money by, well, self-publishing their ebooks.

Won't be picking this up which is a shame because I generally like Christophers stuff but that word count at that price point just doesn't work for me. Much like when comics started pricing themselves at $2-3 per issue. The value just isn't there. It's like paying full price and the movie is only 30 minutes long.

It would be interesting to get a better look at the Talarians but not worth the premium.

Michael Stackpole gave me a long lecture on how good the Agency model is for authors when it comes to eBooks.

Click to expand...

Was this an in-person lecture, or is it something online that you can link to? I've seen nothing on his site about how agency pricing is helpful for authors under the aegis of the Agency Six, only about how self-publishing authors can make a lot more money by, well, self-publishing their ebooks.

Christopher, if you read this post, I just wanted to say "congratulations". Your new eBook has convinced me to dip my toes back into the eBook waters. I am hoping this time goes a lot better than my first disastrous attempt when SCE first came out. I'm assuming the technology is a lot more stable, and the delivery systems are more robust, at this point in time.

I've enjoyed pretty much everything I've read of yours, so I don't want to miss out on this one. Not to say I didn't enjoy SCE... I did, I just switched to waiting for hard copy reprints for those. To be honest, the fact that this seems fairly stand-alone, and I'm not sure where it would be reprinted, probably contributes to my decision as well. (I also wanted Mere Anarchy and Slings & Arrows, but it seemed that they could logically each be reprinted in a single collection... although I am still waiting for Slings & Arrows.)

Now I just have to decide whether to buy it now and read it on the Kobo app on my PC, or wait until I can actually get a Kobo reader. I'm thinking I'll wait for the reader... I borrowed a reader from someone to try, and I liked reading from it a lot better than I liked trying to read those early SCE books on my PC.

This is actually a big sea change for me. After the results from my last attempt, I figured I'd never bother to try again.

Just thought you might like to know.

(Sorry, I know the review thread is more recent, but I didn't want to go in there for fear of spoilers.)